Almost safe!!

Two defeats in 2 games at teams either side of the table, talk about after the Lord Mayors Show. We give Chelsea a scare by scoring 3 goals in 8 minues and then come crashing back down to earth with a bump against Portsmouth.

Hopefully our home form will save us and by winning one more game, we will reach the magic 40 points and can start preparing for another season of top flight football.

The manager was frank in his assessment of our performance and we were as he put it very poor and alot of players didn't perform. The goal that we conceded was very bad defending at a corner - don't get me wrong, Portsmouth deserved to win and at one point it was Jussi taking on Portsmouth and in particular Glenn Johnson all on his own with a couple of cracking saves!

Our next game is at home to Villa and that wont be easy as we don't seem to be able to cope with any team that has pace as we showed in the away game at Villa and recently against Fulham, but I have every confidence that we can get something out of the game as Villa seem to have hit the buffers slightly.

So heres to an enjoyable end of season run-in, at this stage last season we were doomed but went on a run of 5 games unbeaten (3 wins and 2 draws), a run like that is just what the doctor ordered.

Like I said we are safe - almost!!

1 down.................5 to go!!

The start of 6 Cup Finals was how I described the run that started with the West Ham game on Saturday - 4 of them at home and 2 away but all against teams who are just above or just us below in the league.

Unfortunately I wasn't present at the West Ham game, but had the pleasure of being invited to the Setanta studios in London to be a pundit for the day and watched the entire game there. Up one minute, down the next, I don't know how much more of this my heart will stand. If you have a high blood pressure, I would not advise you to watch Bolton.

How many times this season have we gone 2 goals up to be left clinging on at the end by our fingertips? Fortunately at the end of the day it is the 3 points that matter and that is what we got.

Led by the impressive Kevin Davies, ably assisted by Matty Taylor and Gary Cahill, we made hard work of a game which we were leading 2-0 from the eleventh minute. West Ham probably could and should have won or at least got a draw, but they didn't and we picked up the 3 points.

A superb free kick from Taylor from 25 yards which had Green clutching in thin air followed by man mountain Kevins 10th goal of the season and 50th in the Premier League for Bolton was just what the doctor ordered. Cue the nerves and a backs to the wall defensive display. Gary Cahill we salute you, what a timely intervention when Di Michele should have levelled the score. With a bit of luck and a lot of honest endeavour we survived and our goal was only breached once.

I don't think Davies will ever get in the England team and I think Cahill would be in there if he was at a so-called bigger club, and then there is the un-sung lad Matty Taylor, England potential we will have to see. But isn't it great to see English born players doing well and add that to Scott Parker and Mark Noble to name but 2 at West Ham and there was quite an abundance of talent from these shores on display!!

As I said before, it is now a results game and we picked up the 3 points and together with other results from other games, we are now on 30 points and 7 points above the relegation zone, another win on Sunday versus the barcodes (Newcastle) would do nicely, but please no more just hanging on by a thread, as I don't think my heart can take much more of it!!

The next 6 games will make or break us!!!

After all the drama (or lack of it) has died down from the transfer deadline window and we are now left with the players to stave of relegation, the next 6 games are big ones. The games are against teams just above or just below us.

During the window we bought in Makukula a powerful striker, Pugrenier a central defender and another Davies (Mark) who is a young lad who plays in midfield. On the last day of the window, checking the sports channels, teletext and mobile phone messages with rumours of this that and the other player coming to the Reebok, but unfortunately after Nobby's (Nolan) departure to the barcodes otherwise known as Newcastle, we never got that elusive midfielder.

The main 3 we were alledgedly after would have improved the squad, namely Davies (Sean) from Portsmouth, Mendes from Rangers or the biggest of the lot Veloso from Sporting Lisbon. As it was, we went into the game against Everton, a week after our heart stopping games against Blackburn and Spurs with only 6 subs.

The teams were announced and there was no Gardner (he has been impressive recently) and as happened at Arsenal before the deadline - we didn't manage to fill the bench.

We started with our 3 centre backs, of which Andy O'Brien started in the right back position with Steinsson just in front and to be honest, it didn't work. Everything Everton did came down that side. As early as the 2nd minute, Cahill (Everton) missed a sitter and to make matters worse, Jo who couldn't hit a barn door for Man City scored 2 and was involved in all 3 goals. We didn't help ourselves, we were awful. On a freezing cold day, I could have thought of other things to do, but I love my football too much!!

The goals, could they have been prevented? The first was a penalty, which I have been told by a Everton fan who was nearer the incident than me that it was rather dubious, the 2nd gaol, Cahill (Bolton) was turned inside out on the edge of the box and the 3rd was another dubious??? penalty for handball by Mark Davies. Don't get me wrong, only one team deserved to win and it wasn't Bolton.

At least the other results of the other teams around us weren't too bad for us, but we now have a weeks break as we are out of the FA Cup and then we play West Ham at home followed by Newcastle at home, Stoke away and West Brom, Fulham and Middlesborough - all winnable games.

Writing this article just after Adams has gone from Portsmouth and also the shock of Scolari at Chelsea, just shows what might happen in football, so good luck Gary but if we don't do anything in these next make or break games, I am afraid it maybe time for a change!!    

Our season begins now.......!!

We have now played all the big boys i.e. top four twice apart from Chelsea away and we have got precisely nil points from them. We need to start picking up points now form the other teams starting with Blackburn away in our next league game. Forget whats gone on in the past, we have 23 points but our season starts now!!

Football can be cruel at times, we played Arsenal and the Mancs in our last 2 games and took them both to within 7 and 1 minutes respectively to getting draws. 2 points from those 2 games and I would have bitten your hand off! Ok, we set our stall out for a point in both games and had half chances, but to be realistic to win either game would have been a huge bonus.

Saturdays game, Jussi was probably our man of the match when he pulled off some cracking saves and but for Kevin Davies's header being slightly lower in the 2nd half then who knows and the ref didn't help us much with some of his decisions either.

A note about Megson's substitutions were somewhat baffling, Makukula our new signing from Benfica was clearly suffering (possibly from cramp), but why bring Obadeyi on. He will be a good player in the future and he did well as a sub against Arsenal, but on this occasion, I would have been tempted to bring Smorlarek on (Riga has been disappointing unfortunately) and push Davies into the middle. He would have held the ball up and we were crying our for that, Obadeyi is too young and not experienced enough especially against a team like United. He was chasing hopeful balls and his time I am sure will definitely come.

Our other debutant Pugrenier came on as a late substitution for Gardner, and I think this disrupted us as well. Don't get me wrong, he did make a couple of decent tackles but 2 players went for the same ball when Tevez had it, his bit of luck got him past the 2 players and there was no-one there to pick Berbatov up. At least when it was only 2 at the back, Cahill and O'Brien knew which player was marking who. Who'd be a manager, if we had kept a clean sheet, what an excellent substitution!!!

On the transfer front, we are still looking for that elusive midfielder we are crying out for and we still need a bigger squad than we have, the next couple of weeks are hopefully going to bring us just that.

Although I still maintain that we will have a top ten finish, like I said at the beginning of this article our season starts now.....................!!

Back down to earth with a bump!!

Well what can I say after that performance against Liverpool? We got what we deserved - nothing!

After the performance against Pompey where we could have won by about 7-3, we had some if not very high expectations that who knows being Xmas we may have got away with a point, but no as against all the other so called Big four we have played, after 5 games - we have got precisely nil points!!

Without trying to sound like an old record though, these are not the games that will keep us in the Premier League and no disrepect to the other clubs, but it is the games against your Wigans, Blackburns and Sunderlands, etc that we need to beat!!

Yesterdays game at times for Liverpool was more like a training session, we tried to flood the midfield and sit back and it just didn't work and Liverpool passed the ball at will! We had a chance in the first few minutes and a half chance at the end and the rest of the game was camped in our half!!

Gary Cahill was a passenger right at the end as he picked up an injury and just played up front - in my opinion as the game was lost, although we had used all 3 subs (when was the last time Megson has used all 3 subs with still 25 minutes on the clock left - Answer - probably never), he should have been hauled off rather than risking any further injury!!

I thought his replacement at centre-half, Steinsson was excellent and he made a couple of decent challenges, although at right-back when he was given the run around he could easily have been sent-off!! We also lose McCann as he has now picked up five bookings which means he will be suspended and how long before Nolan is suspended again as he also picked up another booking!!

Our local rivals from just down the road, Wigan, at home on Sunday is a must win game as it is very tight at the bottom, we are still on the first page on teletext in 10th place but 3rd from bottom is just 3 points behind us. And, no game on Saturday which will mean shopping with the other half - Great (not!) - Saturday is for football!!!

Half term report - We are in a lot healthier position than last season, although the league is very close at the bottom, after the games against Arsenal and Man U on 10th and 17th Jan respectively we only have Chelsea away to play out of the so-called top 4, so it is not a bad run-in! I am still confidently predicting a top 10 finish and if I was to pick my player of the season now, it would be between Jloyd who is playing superbly now his confidence is back, McCann who is playing how he used to play against us and Jussi who has saved us on more than one occasion this season!!

Merry Christmas to one and all and heres to a fantastic 2nd half of the season!!

What might have been!!!

Well what can be said about Saturday. High one minute, then low the next - story of football and what might have been, ifs, buts and maybe's!

Don't get me wrong, Villa deserved to win with their youngsters outshining the Bolton defence. Unfortunately the return of the 3 amigos back to their old club, notably Samuel, McCann and Cahill ended in a defeat. But. Agbonlahor and Young had other ideas and tore the Bolton defence to shreds, ok helped by a couple of lapses in the Bolton defence.

It all started so brightly, Elamander with a deft flick from a Davies cross! Davies would not say No to getting the ball and got just rewards for his efforts. Then from a corner kick, Steinsson hit the bar from a thunderous header and who knows what may have happened with the score at 2-0. As it was Villa looked like scoring everytime that they attacked and could have and should have had a penalty from a handball from Cahill. Therefore the scoreline could have much worse!!

Davies got a deserved goal, but on the day it wasn't to be and like I said we probably got what we deserved which was nothing!! Villa may not break into the top 4 this year but they will be there or thereabouts. On a positive note, we lost 4-0 last year and where well and truly hammered, this year we definitely played much better and scored 2, whats to a 4-4 draw next year - very good odds me thinks!!

On an aside point, good luck to Big Sam (but not too much!!), you have got the job six months to late! Rovers will survive with him at the helm but as long as we beat them in January and finish above them in the league then I will be happy!

As we enter the Xmas period, we need to beat Portsmouth this weekend, anything from Liverpool on Boxing Day will be a bonus and 3 points at home to Wigan on the 28th is a must - All we want for Xmas is a minimum of 6 points please Santa.

Then we come to the transfer window, a central defender, a creative midfielder and someone with pace please, I am not asking for much. And just to leave with a thought: surely Chelsea don't really want Kevin Davies, if anything I would say Rovers would be after him. Heres to him being a Bolton player for a few years to come.

The curse of Styles strikes again........!!

Ok, so we had a goal disallowed right on half-time and Liverpool had so many chances in a very open game that it could have been a landslide win but the game will be remembered yet again for the disallowed goal by the man in the middle who just happens to be the same ref who changed the course of the game against the Mancs!

I admit that from Mr Styles angle it may have looked like a foul by Nolan as he stuck his leg out slightly, but Reina cannot get away with pushing Nolan not once, but twice in quick succession. Cahill rose very well and headed powerfully home.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we would have won, but being when it was it certainly could have changed the game. Going in at 1-1 instead of 1-0 down and if Ricky had brought his football boots instead of his skates, we may have been 2-1 up!

Megson, with his starting line up baffled us all again, ok we knew that Nolan would start the game after his suspension, but why leave Gardner on the bench again! He and JLloyd have struck up an excellent partnership down that left hand side. Elmander needs a rest, I don't know if he is lacking confidence or is injured still or both!! He played very well against Stoke in the first game of the season and he seemed an excellent acquisition, but it is just not happening for him at the moment. What does Smolarek have to do to start a game?

Another surprise was to see us start with Muamba given a man to man marking job on Gerrard. At times he did look lost and it wasted his talents that he does undoubtedly possess. He tracked Gerrard everywhere, but it didn't help as it left big gaps in the midfield where Muamba would have been. He came off at half time and with Ricky the balance in the team was corrected!

As I have said before, it is not the games against the so-called big four that are important, any point against them is a bonus, it is against the likes of Middlesbrough and Sunderland and we play them in our next two games both away and the club have again made a magnificent gesture and laid on free coaches for both games, so heres hoping for at least a draw in both of them - although 6 points would do us very nicely!!

400 not out and still one of the best!!!

The title says it all, Jussi has now played 400 games for the club and what a way to celebrate. The way the players ran up to him and celebrated at the end of the game you would have thought that we had won the Premiership and not another 3 points in what is turning into one of the most exciting Premier League campaigns for a long time!

That shows how much Jussi is held in such high regard at the club. The fans love him and so do his fellow pros. One of his mates is the Hull manager who has watched his career go from strength to strength over his 10 years at Bolton, most of that being under Brown's guidance! He must have made at least four world class saves to frustrate Hull and it shows how good he was when on the end credits at the end of MOTD it usually shows all the goals, and it showed one of his many saves!!

The day started off very well, with another fine gesture from Bolton by laying on free travel for the 3rd consecutive away game this season. This paid off with the away allocation being a sell out and this created a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium. They are carrying on this magnificent gesture for the next 2 away games at Middlesbrough and Sunderland - hopefully with the same result.

The only blemish on the day was during the minutes silence for our war veterans when a handful of so-called (I use the word very loosely) supporters decided to start singing and that led to a chorus of boos from other fans! Words cannot spell out how that made alot of people feel.

The game kicked off and the first half went largely un-noticed apart from an outrageous flick from King which hit the bar and had us worried. During the first half there was plenty of chanting from the Wanderers 2500 vociferous support. Never have I been to a game before were an opposition manager has been cheered so loudly. On more than one occasion, Brownie is a Wanderer and he's coming home, Brownies coming home could be heard!

At one point during the first half, there were chants of Brownie give us a wave from the Bolton fans, the Hull fans cheered when he didn't, but then he did give some sort of wave to the fans (talk about perfect timing), the Hull fans couldn't believe it and WE couldn't believe it - was this a wave or was he pointing out instructions to his players - only he will know!!

We scored early in the 2nd half from Matty Taylor and had a few half chances. My worry is though that Elmander seems to be struggling - is it the English game or is he still carrying a knock, in my opinion he doesnt appear to be 100%. Smolarek came on and showed us a glimpse of what he can do, maybe he deserves a chance!

Then the rest of the game was the Jussi v Geovanni show. At least 4 times Jussi made wonder saves and a couple of them together with a deflected shot from King (which left him baffled) I still don't know how he kept out!

At the end of day, we got 3 points, Megson's job is safe for at least another week and we had risen 10 places in the league so a very enjoyable Saturday in Hull. Bring on Liverpool next week and another 1-0 win would just nicely!!!

A win, but is Megsons job still safe.................!

3 points on Sunday was just what the doctor ordered, but some of the mumblings before the game was not about the game, but if we lost who would Megsons replacement be.

Curbishley, Coyle, Allardyce, Brown were just a few of the names being banded about. Basically if we lost, everyone was sure Megson would be given the bullet. Some people were even wanting Bolton to lose so we could get a new manager in.

Don't get me wrong after the Everton game, my patience was wearing a bit thin, the tactics and substitutions or lack of them and the teams he was sending out were a big worry. I have been very positive and said at the begining of the season we were going to finish in the top ten no problem, but I was starting to doubt!!

I am a Bolton fan and always will be come what may and will never go to a game wanting us to lose and who knows if we can go on a winning run fantastic and Megson can stay! Unfortunately, there are fans out there who will not go to another game as long as Megson is in charge, they just do not like him.

As for the game itself, the enforced substitution changed the game our way and Gardner was a revelation. Bolton fans have been calling for Gardner to start but Megson has been sticking with Taylor his £5 million signing from Portsmouth. With Gardner on the left and Taylor on the right we played well in the 2nd half.

The old Bolton of Jussi with a couple of vital saves, Davies back to what we know he does best up front as a battering ram and Nolan (I have called him on many occasions), but on Sunday, credit were credit is due he played very well and on another day may have scored.

The defence played very well and J Lloyd is now showing the form that put him on the fringes of the England squad, I am very impressed with him after a dodgy season last season.

So, hopefully onwards and upwards with Megsons blue and white army, but we know that another defeat on Saturday (against high flying Hull) will bring us crashing back down to earth with a bump and supporters calling for the managers head again................................! 

Fans turn on Megson!!

At the beginning of the season, I admit that I had high hopes for Bolton. We finished the season in a sprint and where unbeaten in the last 5 games. The gaffer brought in some decent signings in the Summer and we beat Stoke in the first game of the season. Top 10 finish and a decent cup run would be a very useful season..............or so I thought!!

At this stage last season, we were only 3 points worse off under Sammy Lee and we know what happened to him. Personally speaking amd what seems to be the majority of fans is that Megson is getting his tactics all wrong!!

Take Sunday for example, Spurs were there for the taking. Ok, they had just sacked Ramos less than 24 hours earlier and Harry had already been installed as their manager, but you are not telling me that Harry could work his magic in a few hours. Spurs fans were singing they had their Tottenham back (alot of work yet) and can they play us every week (yes, thats how good we were), maybe in dreamland just at the moment, but won't be as easy against Arsenal - trust me!!

They still had the same players, their defence had got a few injuries and at the best of times has been very suspect, and as for their keeper (enough said) - so what did we do, go 4-5-1. We were crying out for 4-4-2 and to give it a good go, big Kev would have given them hell and we could have gone at them with abit of width. I could be wrong, but we seem to be set up to go for a nil-nil and then if we concede we panic and have to chase the game.

At West Ham, yes we played very well, but had a lot of luck along the way i.e. Green, and we won't get that every week. Megsons substitutions left us scratching our heads, McCann was sent off, but just before that Nolan could quite easily have gone down the tunnel. Why did he not make a sub before this? What use is the likes of Riga to us when he only gets 5 minutes of action every week at the most. At least against Blackburn, Gardner came on with plenty of time to make an impact and we looked like a force, but 5 minutes in this game for both players was not enough.

Ok, we could have got away with a nil-nil, I haven't seen the highlights (I couldn't bring myself to see them) but believe there could have been an element of offside for the first (but where was the marking) and the 2nd was yet another dubious penalty against us. We deperately need at least 4 out of 6 points in our next 2 games at home to Everton and Man City.

Well done the club again for laying on free coach travel, but if we carry on playing like this, they may have to pay us to go - I am sorry Gary but you need to tinker more with your tactics (give your £11 million pound striker more help) otherwise more fans will be turning on you.